Peter Pan Syndrome
by SisiDraig
Summary: Has anyone noticed how much younger Vince looks? Howard can't understand how his friend never seems to age? But when he goes snooping around, he stumbles upon a dark secret...
1. Chapter 1

**Exams are over, _birthday tomorrow_ and well over 3 months worth of summer holidays ahead of me... gotta be the time to start bombarding you lot with new and pointless fics =D**

**Disclaimer: Not MINE!!**

**Warning: Latin is taken from some VERY dodgy online translator! I'm not entirely sure what it says! :D**

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People had always wondered how Vince stayed so young. He never seemed to age. Each birthday would go past but no more wrinkles would appear on his handsome face. He never looked too old to dress in cat suits. He never looked like mutton wearing cowboy hats to make him seem more lamb. In fact, as Howard looked through the photo's of them, he could see that Vince's face hadn't changed in over ten years. Sure there'd been a few image changes, okay a _lot _of image changes. But the eyes, the nose, the skin - it was the same. Howard looked at his own face in the mirror and compared it to an old photo. Although he wouldn't like to admit it; he had had a few more wrinkles, a few more crows feet around his eyes, a couple more sun spots but that didn't mean he looked any worse. He just looked older, more defined, even more like the global explorer he really was.

He looked back to the photo and shivered slightly. Surely, surely Vince couldn't still look like that. He should have at least a few wrinkles. Unless… Had Vince been back to the fountain of youth?

"Howard!" Vince exclaimed in shock, "How dare you? I haven't been back to Xooberon since we drank all that potion."

"It's just, you look the same. I mean, you look exactly the same."

"Good genetics." The smaller man shrugged.

"But we're the same age."

"As if. I'm much younger."

"But we used to be the same age."

"What are you talking about?"

"We were in the same year at school."

"So?"

"So how are you younger now?"

"You asked too many questions." Vince snapped and was straight out the door on the way to a TopShop sale.

Later that afternoon, Howard went rummaging around Vince's room for evidence, aka a bottle of Fountain of Youth water. There was nothing in the wardrobe, nothing in the chest of draws, nothing under the chest of draws. There was nothing in the space under the floorboards (the one that Vince naively thinks is a secret) but in there was just a whole load of sparkly items that aren't in fashion anymore but Vince just can't let go of and a jazz magazine. Howard frowned, he picked the magazine up and flicked through it quickly until there was a picture of himself staring up from the centrefold. Typical Vince, keeping that magazine, probably waiting until the perfect moment to unleash it's hideous embarrassment on the world again. He threw it back down in the hole angrily and was a about to replace the floorboards when he saw a brown, rope like material just below all the glitter. He pushed everything else aside and gave the rope a sharp tug and then there was a loud creaking and a grumbling noise from behind him.

He turned slowly and watched in utter disbelief as a wall panel rotated little by little, like it was straining painfully. He could tell this hadn't been opened in a very long time. Howard's jaw dropped as the bright purple wall paper was replaced by brown paper, curling at the edges and stained with what looked like smoke marks and then there was the painting that adorned the wall.

The gold frame adorned with delicate floral patterns and something underneath the painting scribed in Latin; '_is pictura ostendo quis is vere est' _but that wasn't what made him recoil in horror. That wasn't what made him feel sick to his stomach. The painting was of Vince. His glossy black hair a little less glossy a little more grey. His eyes a little less bright. There were a few more crows feet in the corners of his eyes a few more sunspots. It was still Vince, he was just… older. Who would do something like this? Who would choose to paint Vince older than he was? And why was Vince keeping the painting?

Suddenly, there was a shout in the living room. Naboo telling Vince not to go in his room. Howard jumped. He thought he'd been alone in the house but the turning of the door handle told him otherwise.

"No!" Naboo yelled again, "Vince you can't go in there."

There was the sound of a scuffle and Howard scuttled back to the tatty bit of rope and tugged on it hard. Then he winced as that wall scraped and creaked over the carpet and ceiling as it rumbled and rotated slowly. He begged it to be quiet but it was too late. Vince had heard. So, why wasn't he flying through the door and attacking Howard with torrents of verbal abuse? Howard was sure he heard a sob though it didn't sound as though either Vince or Naboo were crying. It was more a sound of injustice, of betrayal.

Then he heard Naboo say;

"You'll have to tell him the truth now Vince."


	2. Chapter 2

It was painfully awkward. Naboo was shuffling by the door as though he felt he shouldn't be there but that he may somehow be needed. Howard was sat staring at Vince. Vince was sat staring at the floor. It was silent apart from the chatter of people on the street below idly carrying on with their lives, which drifted through the open window. Howard thought of them, of the people the world over with their mundane, boring lives and wished that, just for a day, his life could be boring and mundane too. He wouldn't complain about not being chased by deep-sea transsexuals or green man-witches and he certainly wouldn't complain about missing moments like this. Moments where he learnt something new and terrifying about his best friend. Not that learning something new about someone you've known all your life isn't terrifying enough anyway.

"Vince." Naboo's voice, quiet and almost soft, "tell Howard what happened."

Vince's eyes flicked up and met Howard's and he shuddered. He opened his mouth and began to tell the story…

_It was cold, the wind was howling around the empty zoo and Vince was feeling completely miserable for the first time in his ever lengthening life. This was definitely the end of this this chapter and he sighed, slumping dejectedly onto a bench. A hedgehog waddled up to find out what was wrong but Vince ignored him, he wasn't in the mood to talk and he still had that hideous thirtieth birthday looming like a black cloud on the horizon._

"_Vince Noir." The hedgehog said, "If I said there was a way to keep you looking like this forever, would you take it?"_

_Vince sat up suddenly._

"_Yes. Definitely. Can you help me?"_

"_I can." the hedgehog promised, it's voice suddenly less scratchy and more like beautiful silver bells. There was a faint wishing sound and the hedgehog grew into a beautiful young woman, with auburn hair, flowing delicately around her narrow pale shoulders. She didn't seem to be wearing anything and yet she wasn't naked, more of a ghostly, angelic vision. Vince's jaw dropped open. He'd never seen a more beautiful, more innocent looking creature. Slowly, she glided forward and wrapped herself around Vince. He could feel the touch of her lips on his neck but, at the same time, he could feel nothing at all. He shuddered as she continued her ministrations, placing feather kisses up to the sort space behind his ear._

"_There are… complications with the process Vince." she whispered into Vince's ear._

"_I don't care." Vince groaned lightly, feeling himself growing with desire and need. "Give me it. I need to…"_

_"Stay young?" she asked._

_He nodded as she pressed a kiss to his lips. He kissed her back eagerly and she encourage him to part his lips. As soon as he did, everything changed. He suddenly felt breathless. His lungs emptied. He couldn't breath. He tried to push her away but he couldn't feel her. His eyes snapped open. He was on the floor, body rigid and unmoving. His breath was being stolen and the vision was gone. He tried to gulp for breath but it was impossible. He panicked. The edges of his vision fading fast. He tried to yell out but he couldn't. He tried to scream as the darkness closed in on him and then… Nothing._

_When Vince woke up, he'd found himself on a fairly comfortable single bed in a room which was totally unfamiliar to him. He could here voices from outside the door._

"_I'm saying Vince can stay here." lisped one voice._

"_Well, wherever Vince goes, I go."_

"_I've only got one spare bedroom... Fine. I supposed I could squeeze a bed in the box room."_

_"That's fine."_

_"And Vince, he may act differently now."_

_"Oh come on Naboo."_

_"I'm serious Howard. He'll change."_

_"Why?"_

"_Err… leaving the zoo. It'll make him act a little differently."_

"_Okay." Howard didn't sound convinced. "Can I see him now?"_

"_No. I need to speak to him now."_

"_Fine. Naboo?"_

_"Yes."_

"_Why the change of heart?"_

_"Vince needs looking after now."_

_Vince could almost hear the confusion on Howard's face through the thin walls. The door opened suddenly and Naboo appeared. He looked furious and Vince cowered a little._

"_What the hell were you thinking?" Naboo asked. Vince had never seen the shaman angry in his life. He was usually so laid back but now he just looked stressed._

"_I can't believe you did a deal with the devil."_

"_But… what? I? But she was beautiful…"_

_"What did you expect?" scorned Naboo, "she's part shaman."_

_Vince was about to point out that being shaman did not guarantee good looks but decided against it and instead went for;_

"_What happened when I passed out?"_

"_She took part of your soul. It's what she does. It's how she survives. She plays on the seven deadly sins of innocent young men and woman. She offers them a solution and then takes part of their soul and gives you some of hers. The more pieces of soul she has spread around the universe the longer she can survive. I should have known she'd come after you. Young, naïve, innocent and vain; you were perfect for her needs."_

"_Wait. So am I part devil?"_

_"Yes. Only a small part but it will still affect you."_

"_But will I stay young forever."_

_"Oh, yes. She wont go back on a promise."_

"_Genius!" cried Vince. "Am I gonna look like this forever?"_

"_I don't think you understand the seriousness of the situation."_

"_Am I gonna look like this forever?"_

_"Yes."_

_Vince cheered excitedly and went to find Howard. "You can't tell anyone." Naboo warned as he got to the bedroom door._

"_What?" Vince turned back._

"_If you tell anyone, the magic is lost and the devil consumes your entire body." Naboo mumbled something which Vince didn't catch, it sounded important but the shaman didn't really seem to want Vince to know. "And you can never look at the picture." he finished._

"_What picture?"_

"_There's a painting. It's going to age instead of you. If you look at it, the age will return to you."_

_Vince's eyes widened with fear. "Where is it now?"_

_Naboo showed Vince the complicated spinning wall mechanism._

Howard listened intently. He tried to take it all in but it was hurting his brain. He couldn't concentrate properly. He couldn't believe it. And then he thought. Thought about Vince back in the zoo and Vince now. How much he'd changed, how much he'd changed Howard. He sighed. Vince wasn't the same as he used to be.

_You made a deal with the devil. A deal with the devil. The devil. The devil. The devil._


	3. Chapter 3

"I don't understand." Howard frowned. "Why would you do that Vince?"

"I wanted to stay young. I still do."

"So you'll never age, ever?"

"Not unless I look at the picture."

"But what about this business 'the devil will consume you if you tell'?"

Naboo stepped in at this point. "Vince's was being consumed slowly anyway. Everyday he becomes a little less Vince a little more devil."

"What?" both gasped in horror.

Naboo shrugged. "You never asked the consequences Vince."

"But…"

"The devil?" Howard squeaked. "You're becoming the actual devil."

"But…" Vince whispered again. "Naboo. You never said that before. You just said if I told…"

"No point in panicking you." said the shaman, with a quick shrug of the shoulders. "And it doesn't _always _happen. Often, infected people just become a little more evil every birthday. But you… she must've liked you, well, your form anyway because your process has been greatly accelerated."

"What are you saying?" Vince asked anxiously.

"Vince. You're dying. Fading to non-existence and she, she is consuming you."

"But I…"

"Vince. You're becoming her."

"SHUT UP!" Vince screamed, leaping to his feet. His eyes flashed red.

"I'm just telling you the truth Vince."

"_No_." Vince's voice cracked, it sounded like nails on a whiteboard. "_Shut up tiny shaman_!"

"Oh." Naboo said calmly. "It's you."

"_Why are you telling him? He can't do anything about it now_."

Howard cowered into the sofa and whimpered slightly. Vince looked manic, red eyed, hair up on end and he was oh-so crazed.

"What about the path of true love? We all know true love can conquer anything."

"_Ha! I'm not weak to 'true love'. That's an urban myth._"

"Oh, really?" Naboo looked totally surprised and a little crestfallen. "So telling him has done…"

"_Nothing._" Not-Vince cackled mirthlessly. "_Oh tiny shaman. You really have no idea. And you_!" Not-Vince turned to Howard, who seemed to be trying to disappear into the back of the sofa. "_You," _he repeated, "_Are a useless waste of oxygen. And you know."_

Not-Vince lunged at Howard and gripped his head like a vice, forcing him deeper into the back of the sofa hard. He leant in very close, ready to kiss Howard's life away.

"No." Vince's voice came from within his body as he tried to pull his face from Howard "Don't hurt him."

"_Stay out of this."_ the scraping nail voice warned.

"No."

"_Then feel this."_

Vince's voice cried out with pain as his left hand closed around his neck.

"you're not going to kill Howard." Vince's voice came again as the hand started to tighten it's grip around his throat. Vince choked and his eyes bulged in fear.

Howard's mouth dropped open in shock but as soon as his lips parted, Vince's body lunged forward and he started to kiss him. Howard felt his breath begin to be sucked away. Icy cold pain in his lungs and then. That feeling was gone, and it was just slow and sensuous. His breath returned to his lungs and he kissed back carefully. Suddenly, Vince's body went weak in his arms and crumpled into a heap.

Howard looked up to see Naboo frowning at him.

"You're not supposed to kiss the devil back." Naboo said raising a somewhat bemused, somewhat angry eyebrow. "That's just great. Now you're going to be never-aging too. Close your eyes a minute until the photo of you appears."

"I…" Howard blushed furiously, "I think that was Vince."

"What?"

"I think he out fought her. I think he kissed me in the end."

They both looked down at the crumpled heap of unconscious man on the floor.

"Take him to his room." Naboo ordered. "Stay there until I can work out what's happening."

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**Apologizes for **_**painfully **_**short chapter!! I will stop neglecting this fic from now on!! I will promise a fully fledged chapter next update - Any preferences on next chapter?? This is about the first time i've ever updated as soon as i finish the chapter! So it's making me anxious! lol.**

**Sisi...xx**


	4. Chapter 4

It didn't take long for Vince to come around but when he did he just sat on the bed twirling a piece of hair around his finger. He knew what was coming. Howard was going to shout at him for being so stupid and then, quite frankly, he'd probably cry. He'd just been told he was dying and that he was being taken over. He knew he'd been stupid and he didn't need Howard to remind him. But Howard didn't say anything. He just sat on his own bed, not looking at Vince and in some ways, that was worse. The silence dragged on, the twirling increased and Howard's sighs got louder. The atmosphere built and built until;

"Why aren't you yelling at me?"

"What would that achieve?" Howard asked distantly.

"Well do something. Say something."

"What can I say?" Howard asked calmly. "I knew you were vain Vince but I didn't think you'd try and defy time itself and I know you can be stupid but making a deal with the devil… that's a whole new level of idiocy."

"I know." Vince sighed, his hand falling from his hair and resting in his lap.

"Exactly. You know." Howard said, "So there's nothing I can say."

Vince nodded and the silence returned for a second until Vince said;

"It's going to be okay, isn't it Howard?"

"No. You're going to die in the most horrific way."

Vince nodded again but he felt the tears welling up in his throat and pushing towards his eyes. Howard looked over to his friend, just as the first teardrop trickled down Vince's face.

"Oh don't cry." Howard said, getting up and sitting near Vince. "Come on. It's not that bad. We've been in worse situations."

"Have we?" Vince's voice was cracked and broken.

"Well, er… no." And more tears joined the first on Vince's face. "But that doesn't mean we can't get through this."

"Bu-bu-but, I'm turning into the devil Howard." Vince sobbed, gasping hard as his shoulders shook from crying.

"Look, don't cry." Howard said, reaching out awkwardly to pat Vince's arm. As soon as the gesture was done, Vince flew at Howard's snuggled into his muffin-coloured roll neck. Howard stiffened for a second, his arms pinned to his sides. He just looked down at the mop of dark hair attached to his chest.

"Er… Vince." he said but the younger man wasn't listening. He just buried himself deeper into Howard and whispered;

"I'm sorry Howard."

"Er… it's okay." Howard said, cautiously putting his arms around Vince and holding him uneasily for a while and then; "What if you just look at the picture?"

"Huh?" Vince asked, pushing himself upright and looking away from Howard.

"Well, think about it; if you look at the picture then you'll be rid of the devil."

"But I'll be old."

"Only as old as me."

"Exactly. Ancient! I'll look like a crypt creeper!"

"Vince!"

"What?"

"Are you saying I look like the crypt creeper?"

"Well… a bit." Vince shrugged.

"Oh forget it." Howard sulked, getting to his feet and walking to the other side of the room. "Are you honestly telling me, you'd rather be die than be old?"

"Yes… no! But… I don't wanna be old Howard!" Vince cried, looking directly at he space on his wall which held the painting, "Old isn't cool. Old is brown and boring. Young is bright and genius and…"

"Dying."

"I'd rather die young and cool like Kurt Kobain, Sid Vicious, Jimi Hendrix; they all asked me to keep them young too."

"Vince, you're not fa-." Then Howard registered what Vince had said, "They wanted you to keep them…? Vince? Vince?"

And Vince turned to look at him, his eyes were an intense red beneath his black fringe.

"You've got his voice." Howard whispered, backing away into a wall.

"I want him." Vince's voice said but it wasn't him talking anymore. "Slowly I will every part of him."

"Why slowly?" Howard asked, frowning.

"Well…erm, because… look. It's bloody hard work taking over someone's body. The process is slow."

"Oh. Are you sure you're the devil?"

"YES!" the voice hissed, though it did sound just a little whiney and desperate. Howard frowned. He wasn't entirely convinced and it must have been apparent on his face.

"Okay. So maybe I'm not Lucifer but I am related to him. He's my older brother. Right knob he is too. But that's not the point. Vince sold his soul to me. Not him. Ha! And Lucifer's furious. He's had a crush on Vince since forever."

"You are kidding." groaned Howard, suddenly forgetting he was talking to the devil, or the devil's sister. "Don't tell Vince the actual Devil has a crush on him. I'll never hear the end of it."

"Lucifer's not the actual Devil. I am." Vince's voice cracked and the sharp grating voice from the living room returned. "I AM!" It screamed.

"Oh yes." Howard nodded quickly. "Of course. You're the real Devil. You're the big man around here - the one everyone's afraid of."

"I am, aren't I?"

Howard nodded.

"You know what." she said, calming a little and resorting back to Vince's voice. "I quite like you."

"Oh."

"You know. I've always thought you were the good looking one out of you and Vince. He's got that face that's too busy and he wears those accessories that mean everyone of his features is screaming for attention."

"Yes!" Howard cried a little too enthusiastically. Finally, someone else saw Vince's face for what it really was a mess of too large features all jostling for position.

"Not like you." Vince's voice continued. "You've got a strong handsome face. The kind of face that really shows a distinction of character with a moustache that shows just what a man of action you are."

"That's exactly right." Howard said.

"See Howard. _I _understand you. Vince doesn't."

Howard shook his head.

"He doesn't get you. He doesn't get that you're deeply poetic and serious. He doesn't get that you're a world wide talent."

"No."

"No." Vince's lips curled into a sneer. "I understand. Wouldn't you like to have me around more often?"

Howard nodded.

"See, so don't let Vince see the picture then." Vince's hand came to rest on his cheek and he stepped right up close. Howard could feel the sparks of tension dancing between them and felt himself move into the touch on his face. He watched Vince's eyes flutter closed and his head tilt lightly and, without conscious control, Howard's head tilted too. They were getting closer, breath mingling. Lips so close and…

"Howard you ballbag." Naboo cried and Vince was ripped from his grasp by an angry gorilla. Bollo started to shake the thin body furiously, whilst Vince's voice yelled for him to stop but he only stopped when the breathless cry was;

"Bollo, put me down you Muppet or I'll tell Naboo what happened with Fossil up on Brokeback mountain." The gorilla let Vince fall to the floor and the blue-eyed man shot his hairy friend a filthy look. "Think of the damage you've done to my poor brain cell." he groaned. "He's got his work cut out as it is, without you shaking him about."

"Sorry." grumbled the gorilla. "I thought you Devil."

"Whatever."

"What were you thinking Howard?" Naboo was glaring at the taller man. "You could have been possessed too."

"I don't think so Naboo. We had a chemistry me and her. See, she's not really interested in Vince. She's only consuming him because it's annoying her brother. She's got better taste than that. She just wants a taste of the Moon Machine - lover extraordinaire."

"I doubt that virgin-man." scoffed Vince. "And what d'you mean a taste of the Moon Machine? If Naboo hadn't come in, were you gonna bum me?"

"No. I may have made love to her."

"Her! In my body. Err. Get away from me." Vince cried, leaping away and brandishing the closest thing he could reach as a weapon, which happened to be a very precious Jazz record, which was promptly dropped, accompanied by a cry of, "Ah! Jazz!"

"Watch it!" Howard cried getting to his knees and brushing the dust of his LP. As he found himself looking straight at Vince's crotch.

"Argh! Get away." Vince said, though there was a hint of a giggle bubbling in his voice. "Stop it. I ain't her now."

"I'm quite aware of that, thank you." Howard said pompously, and then, almost as though attempting to clarify he said, "_She_ was beautiful."

"_She_ was in _my_ body. That means I'm beautiful."

"See. It's sentences like that that mean we're stuck here in the first place. She was more sophisticated than you, Vince. She understood the attributes of a real man of action such as myself."

"Oh please don't…" there was a flicker of humour in Vince's eyes now, "Please don't tell me you've fallen for the flaming Devil."

"She had a sensitive side."

"Rubbish! It's the devil!"

"Vince is right, Howard." chimed Naboo. "She may act sweet and innocent but she's not really. She's just trying to get you under her control too and that's why you can't let her kiss you because she'll suck your life away. D'you get it?"

Howard nodded glumly and muttered something indistinguishable about jealousy.

"Right. Vince." The shaman said, turning to the younger man. "Wear this." he said, holding out a strange blue pendant.

"Genius." Vince grinned, slipping it around his neck. "What does this do?"

"It stops the devil being able to use you to talk to people until well… you know, until it's taken over completely."

"Right." Vince said, fingering the pendant lightly. "Okay."

--

"Do you think I'm beautiful Howard?" Vince asked.

It was dark. The curtains were shut. It was pitch black outside and quiet, apart from the soothing sound of the odd car driving across the warm tarmac below. Howard had been forced, by Naboo to stay in the room with VInce.

"It'll do him no good being on his own at night" the Shaman had said. So of course Howard was the one who was asleep on the floor of Vince's clothed covered room.

"Huh?"

"Do you think I'm beautiful?"

"I… erm… huh?"

"You said earlier that…"

"I know." Howard cut in. "But I was talking about inner beauty, Vince."

There was silence. Or what would have been silence if there hadn't been the distinct sniggering sound.

"Are you laughing Vince?"

"No."

"You are!"

"I'm not!" Vince insisted, just as he let out a loud snort of laughter.

"Vince!"

"What?"

"Why are you laughing at me?"

"Inner-beauty?" he giggled.

"What's funny about that?"

"The devil's inner-beauty? Did you put your head on backwards this morning?"

"I did not. She was very kind to me."

"Because she's trying to get something from you. How long d'you reckon I'll last Howard? You know, before I am the devil and you and she can spend all your time together?"

"Don't be stupid. I rather spend time with you than her."

"D'you mean that?"

"Of course."

"Good."

"Howard."

"Hmm?"

"Never let her cut my hair off, okay?"

"But…"

"Please." Vince begged. "I couldn't bear that. If my bodies going to be used then she has to use my hair too."

"Okay little man. Now, go to sleep."

"Nah. I don't think I will." he said, getting up suddenly. "I'm gonna go out."

"What? Why?"

"Why not?"

"I'm young and cool and dying - think of the birds I'll get with this sob story."

"You're kidding."

"No. I might even go on one of those Simon Cowell talent shows. I'll definitely get votes if people think I'm dying."

"You need talent as well though Vince."

"You don't!" he laughed. "See you later Howard."

"Right. Um, okay."

The door opened and Howard was his full in the face as the light from the landing was flicked on. "Shut the door." he groaned.

"Right, sorry. Night!"

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**I don't realy like this story! It's gone a bit wrong in my brain and it doesn't have much of a direction at the moment! :( If anyone can think of any idead i'd love to hear them!  
Thanks  
Sisi...xx**


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